The present invention relates generally to a device for holding a portable cellular telephone and mounting such telephone to a vertical surface of the interior of an automobile.
Cellular telephones are used by many people with the need to stay in contact or remain accessible at any moment. When cellular phones were first developed, they were limited by their power source needs to rigid mounting platforms permanently installed in a vehicle on the dashboard, floorboard, or arm-rest glove box. These cellular phones were termed mobile telephones as they were restricted to the vehicle. Consumer demand for a phone that was not restricted to a vehicle led to the introduction of a bulky, portable cellular telephone equipped with an independent power supply referred to as transportable telephone. The latest cellular telephone models are portable telephones, notable for their lightweight, unrestricted use and compact battery source.
One-piece or single-unit cellular telephones are incorporated into the telephone handset. Many of these one-piece cellular phones have a removable power cord used to recharge the phone's batteries by plugging into a power source such as an automobile's cigarette lighter. People often have a need to use a cellular telephone while they are in an automobile and find that it is convenient to have their telephone centrally located or mounted to the dashboard of the automobile.
In the present state of the art, there are numerous types of holders for one-piece telephones or telephone handsets. These, however, are not suitable for accepting a wide variety of phone models and are dependent on a semi-permanent or permanent method of mounting the holder to the vehicle. Other drawbacks to the present state of the art of telephone holders include: 1) use limited to one type of phone; 2) mounting limited to one type of vehicle; 3) unable to hold telephone while the telephone's power cord is plugged in; and 4) removal of telephone is not easily performed using one hand.